Thursday, 16 February 2012

Links of the day 02/16/2012

"Greece is at the cutting edge of the austerity measures that are being introduced across Europe. All the evidence shows that while these measures may protect the interests of the rich, they just make matters worse for the majority of the population. What happens in Greece today we will see in Portugal tomorrow and in Ireland the day after. In Britain, the Coalition government is pursuing similar measures which will see workers’ earnings reduced, working longer for a smaller pension, and the NHS dismantled along with other public services."

"Eighteen months after the non-election of this government, the fight to save the Welfare State is just getting started New groups are springing up around the UK to resist the all out assault on the very poorest and after over a year of action claimants aren’t going anywhere just because Cameron has bullied this Bill through the Lords."

"The oldest living thing on Earth is a massive "meadow" of sea grass growing in the Mediterranean between Spain and Cyprus. It's somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 years old and reproduces by cloning itself. Also, it's being killed by climate change."

"But the answer to in-work poverty is not to cut benefits, and there is no clear-cut divide between hard-working families and ‘benefit scroungers’. For most people, poverty is fluid. One in sixteen people in the UK are in the poorest fifth for at least two in three years. Most move in and out of the bottom. Within four years, about a third of the population slip into the poorest fifth for at least one year. This isn’t about fecklessness. It’s about the way the market works ↑ for people."

"I feel it is a distraction to scapegoat "evil private landlords" for our housing problems; the problems are entirely due to the last 30 years of governments Housing policy, which uses housing benefit to subsidies our private rented consumer service."

"Some long-term sick and disabled people face being forced to work unpaid for an unlimited amount of time or have their benefits cut under plans being drawn up by the Department for Work and Pensions."

"Poverty, we are often told, is not “actual”, because people have TVs. This gradual erosion of empathy is the triumph of an economic climate in which everyone, addicted or not, is personally responsible for their own lack of achievement. Poor people are not simply people like us, but with less money: they are an entirely different species. Their poverty is a personal failing."

"On 1 December 2011, the government announced a discussion with disabled people to gather suggestions for a new cross-government disability strategy. The Government’s ambition is to enable disabled people to fulfil their potential and have opportunities to play a full role in society. To realise this ambition, they wish to tackle barriers to realising aspirations and individual control, as well as change attitudes and behaviour towards disabled people."

"it is looking more and more like this workfare program is driven by populist anger against ‘benefit scroungers’: The logic seems to be that if they can work, they should work; and if there are no jobs available, they should work for free until there are. It is policy by demonisation, and it is shameful."

"Under the scheme – the first of its kind in the UK – jobcentre managers have the power to make unemployed people do a month's work experience at charities, government offices or high-street chains if they feel claimants "fail to demonstrate the focus and discipline necessary to seek out, secure and retain employment opportunities"."

"Magnesium supplementation appears to achieve a small but clinically significant reduction in BP, an effect worthy of future prospective large randomised trials using solid methodology," wrote researchers"

"Over the past year the amount of recommended supplementation has increased from 400 to 800 IU for adults and from 200 to 400 IU for children. New guidelines just released from a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, offer additional guidelines that increase the recommended dosage of Vitamin D supplementation to maintain optimal health. "

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"Chaos was experienced as a feeling of alienation from oneself, of being unable to determine one's own living conditions, and of being unable to handle stress situations by the same means as before. The path from chaos to cosmos was discovered by telling one's life story, which proved to be a creative process relating and integrating the present with the past, and providing an overview of one's life cycle."

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"The moral test of a society is how that society treats those who are in the dawn of life . . . the children; those who are in the twilight of life . . . the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life . . . the sick, the needy, and the handicapped."